Chelsea FC vs Crystal Palace: Post-Match Reflections
Wickham/Delaney Masterclass
Sako may have scored and assisted both goals, but Connor Wickham was the catalyst for Crystal Palace’s threat going forward. The youngster seems to enjoy playing against the Blues and was again instrumental on Saturday. He is the only player in the EPL that can boast of defeating Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea at Stamford Bridge twice (he scored the first goal in Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Sunderland in April 2014, Mourinho’s first EPL home defeat).
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He was given little change by Kurt Zouma and Gary Cahill and spent most of the game playing with his back to goal. But he used the attention to his advantage, pulling Cahill all over the place and giving the other attacking players the space to cause damage, which was reflected in both goals.
He even had a good chance to score when he hit a weak volley from Yannick Bolasie’s cross just before Chelsea netted the equaliser. However, his movement in general caused the Blues backline a lot of problems and he has every reason to be pleased with his contribution to the victory.
Damien Delaney, the Eagles’ captain, was a real beast at the other end of the pitch. He made life really difficult for Diego Costa, and made an impressive tackle inside the box when Costa was poised to score. Moreover, he was always in the right place at the right time to block goal-bound efforts. He made the most blocks of any player on the pitch on Saturday, including 3 consecutive blocks from Pedro, Ivanovic and Zouma.
The Irishman marshalled the Palace backline impressively, making sure that Chelsea had little space to cause problems by keeping them compact and as close to goal as possible. Alan Pardew owes Saturday’s victory largely to the performances of both Wickham and Delaney.
Next: Poor Stamford Bridge Atmosphere